The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has on Thursday met with President Muhammadu Buhari behind closed doors, at the Presidential Villa Abuja.
The CBN Governor was recently involved in controversies after his name appeared as one of the 2023 presidential aspirants in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The governor has been under pressure to resign from his position owing to the fact that he is interested in becoming the President of Nigeria. In recent development, the President categorically asked the CBN Governor and other political appointees to resign on or before Monday May 16, 2022.
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Although the CBN Governor refused all entreaties to make an official statement on the details of his visit to the Presidential Villa, he told State House Journalists that he has no news for them now, but promised that there will be news very soon.
When his attention was to called that the international community was anxious about his planned involvement in politics, he responded by saying he is “having fun”.
“Let them have a heart attack. its good to have a heart attack. I am having a lot of fun
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“There is no news now, but there will be news,” the governor said.
The CBN Governor had earlier shown no intention to resign after he approached an Abuja Federal High Court to enforce his right to contest without re-signing from his position.
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Although the Court dismissed his request on Monday and thereafter postponed to today, there have been several developments on his case.
On Thursday, during the hearing, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and two others applied to be joined in the suit by the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele, seeking to enforce his right to participate in the 2023 presidential election without re-signing.
The court had earlier adjourned to today to enable the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) appear before it to show why the court should not restrain them from preventing the CBN Governor from realizing his political ambition by participating in all the processes leading to the 2023 presidential election.
However, with the recent development, involving the new entries into the case, the timeline of the case has been extended to May 23, 2022 exactly seven (7) days after the set deadline for resignation contained in President Buhari’s directive.
It was also not clear if Governor Emefiele during the meeting with the President, has sent in his resignation letter in compliance with the President’s directives or explained to the President about his pending case at the Federal High Court.
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Journalists tried harder to get the governor to speak on his meeting with the President, he however kept saying enthusiastically that there is no news but there will be news.
“You heard me, I said there is no news but there will be news,” Emefiele said repeatedly.
EMEFIELE’S CASE
Following a new twist that emerged at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday, as the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and two others applied to be joined in the suit by the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele, seeking to enforce his right to participate in the 2023 presidential election without re-signing.
The court had on Monday adjourned to Thursday to enable the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) appear before it to show why the court should not restrain them from preventing the CBN Governor from realizing his political ambition by participating in all the processes leading to the 2023 presidential election.
The summoning of INEC and AGF was sequel to a motion ex-parte argued by Emefiele’s lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, to restrain the two defendants from taking any step that would jeopardize the interest of his client.
Ruling in the exparte, Justice Mohammed had ordered the CBN Governor to serve all court processes in relation to the suit he filed against INEC and the AGF who are 1st and 2nd defendants respectively.
At the hearing of the matter on Thursday, both INEC and AGF were in court in line with the court’s order.
Before proceeding with the case of the CBN Governor, two lawyers stood up to announce appearances for their clients.
First was a Senior advocate of Nigeria, Sebastiane Hon, who informed the court of the intention of his client, the PDP to join as an interested party, which was immediately followed by one John Martins and Olukunle Ebun, who also announced appearances, suing for themselves and on behalf of the “Save Nigeria our Fatherland”
Responding, Emefiele’s lawyer, who did not oppose the applicants joining the suit, undertook to serve the applicants with all processes within 24 hours.
While INEC through its lawyer, Ibrahim Inuwa, did not also oppose the application for joinder, that of the AGF, Dipo Okpeseyi, did and urged the court to ensure that only proper parties should be allowed to join in the matter.
In a short ruling, the court joined the PDP, John Martins and Olukunle Ebun as 3rd, 4th and 5th defendants respectively.
Justice Mohammed in addition ordered accelerated hearing in the matter, adding that while the 1st and 2nd defendants were directed to respond to the plaintiff’s suit within Monday and Tuesday, the 3rd to 5th defendants have up till Wednesday next week to respond and the plaintiff, 24 hours to reply on point of law.
Justice Mohammed subsequently adjourned to May 23 for parties to adopt their final written addresses.
Justice Mohammed, while warning that the court will not entertain any request for extension of time since all parties have pledged to the accelerated hearing of the matter, also warned parties not to take any step that would undermine the proceedings.
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